Wombat

Avellone wrote about the time passage while back in his blog but...ultimately, my opinion is similar to MrGeekyGamer - simply put, it's not cost-efficient. Such complex system is too consuming compared with the resulted game-play. Rather, I found that Alpha Protocol style of differentiating outcomes by letting the players to choose the order of the quests was much more reasonable as the expression of "time passages." As for time factor as a challenge, hardcore mode of Fallout: New Vegas had the resource management game-play, which, indeed, made crafting skills valuable. Some ideas may be translated into the exploration factor of Eternity especially if there is a ranger-equivalent class. About the daily events of the imaginary world, you may find it interesting if you take a look at King of Dragon Pass. Also, Sawyer is a fan of Darklands, which seems to have various interesting factors related with what you wrote, although I haven't put my hands on it yet.

I guess I had more info as a semi-regular forum lurker - I noticed the writing team of Obsidian had been diminished (especially considering the soul concept, Ziets should be missed although it's ultimately about his life). It is not hard to guess the dialogues will be spread thin or the game will have smaller numbers of NPCs. And as I guessed, the answer seems to be the latter. Considering the number of companion NPCs in Torment, I know it doesn't kill the game. Also, we don't know how the system works at all. How much customization is possible for these "classes," do you know, for example? In any case, I'm a person who began to beleive a smaller team can be a good thing. So, others may have different opinions. I wonder if this is a backfire example of the mystery marketing. It's true that they didn't tell much info but did they lie? I don't beleive I need to remind that you can pull back your money anytime before the deadline.

Still it's unclear if this is considered as aminism or something like veneration of the dead, which can be seen in many cultures. Do material items can have souls in a way or another (Aminism)? Or, is that possible for the players to contact with souls of historical existences, whom can be considered as legendary hero/heroin, saints and/or deity from some (veneration of the dead). Also, is that possible to bind contract with such entities and/or living NPCs (companions especially) like the example of Oath spell of cult of Humakt?

How could I miss the info...guess too much attention to written info... Anyway, thanks for directing my attention to this.

Talking of nuances and rooms for interpretations around the world setting, how about different lores/historical views depending on the group of people who described them through in-game materials. If it is realistically difficult, how about only for important items/historical events?

I don't disagree with that there should be room for nuances and interpretations. In fact, even the oath spell is something not used carelessly by GMs and we don't have real-time GMs in CRPG. Again, balances are important, here. I think the vampiric curse in The Elder Scroll series are not so popular, too. That said, a milder adpotation of the idea like that some powerful items may be considered as blessed/forbidden by a certain groups, for example, may be interesting.

While back, I mentioned the possibility of letting the players to tie item with story-lines (whether they are sub-quest episode or the main story) in Avellone's blog comment. It may be interesting if keeping cursed/blessed item may have impact on storylines, too. I wonder if the world has magic system such as curse, oath, and sealing spirit - in Black Hound, there appears to be a curse tied to the main plot, although this is triggered by an action like in Setanta's case. If the story has complex human-relationship, and it seems to be the likely the case, I wonder if there is a possibility of magic system playing a certain role in such relationship. For example, in Gloranthan setting, followers of Humakt has a strong spell called oath, which makes it difficult for other groups in the world to cheat this non-nonsense group.

As for system/setting integrity, if the setting of this game allows character to acquire supernatural abilities/exceptional abilities as human being, does it have explanations for it? Are such abilities given by deities, spirits, accessing different planes directly/indirectly and/or dealing mystical creatures such as killing dragons (Black Dragon in IWD2 has "Siegfried effect", for example)? For example, leveling-up is too granted a notion that it tends to be a mechanical process but is there more convincing/dramatic/thematic way of achieving new abilities tied to the setting?

While another original world like Torment would be interesting, if such originality doesn't play anything with possible themes, they remain just superficial. In that case, I'd rather see the world which appear usual fantasy setting with some interesting themes underneath its cover, betraying the appearances. It think that's what the project is heading to.

Maybe not good at adjusting to new technologies, they are pro. In fact, I've been quite surprised to find the number of factors they have told on the net had eventually appeared in various works of theirs. It seems that they put ideas which are not used in their previous games, including canned ones, in their newer projects. For us players, it's like finding materialized pieces of ideas scattered in their games. In the case of the project lead Sawyer, if you were around BIS boards during the development of Van Buren and Jefferson and haven't played Fallout: New Vegas yet for some reasons, play it to find out what I'm saying. That said, I'd like them to drop some hurdles to possible new people to RPG, too, just like inviting a new person to a PnP session. I'd like to see some new people (especially when they are mature - and by mature, it doesn't necessarily mean their physical ages) lean to enjoy CRPG. Of course, for old fans, something like hardcore mode would be nice. Since they are building the system from scratch, they may be able to achieve this simply by adjusting various numbers such as recovery rate.

People around me are types who are interested in tablets rather than phones - I've gotten an impression that they can be converted to gamers if someone can show games are capable of dealing with mature themes.

I really love this stuff, personally. Yeah, considering what had been told about Black Hound and this Infinity, I think this kind of aspect is what I most expect as an old fans of detailed world settings which have some common things through our histories/lives. IMO, this can compose most mature experiences in role-playing games. The graphical presentation of Assassins' Creed is eye-pleasing but, it lacks core themes to be explored in historical settings. I believe if there is a mature role-playing game at all, I'd expect such interactions which explore humanity bit more. A role-playing game which put the players into different cultures to eventually see something common in our lives would be my dream RPG.Yeah, considering what had been told about Black Hound and this Infinity, I think this kind of aspect is what I most expect as an old fans of detailed world settings which have some common things through our histories/lives. IMO, this can compose most mature experiences in role-playing games. The graphical presentation of Assassins' Creed is eye-pleasing but, it lacks core themes to be explored in historical settings. I believe if there is a mature role-playing game at all, I'd expect such interactions which explore humanity bit more. A role-playing game which put the players into different cultures to eventually see something common in our lives would be my dream RPG.

Maybe not for PC but, if they aim to tablet audiences, then it should be noted that the most common complaint about tablet port of Bard's Tale by InExile is the file size. In any case, I basically agree with you.

Presentation of the game-play can be important - I wasted my share of time dealing with NWN 2 camera and the story must be the same for the designers. As a player, I found the game-play was not as good as ones on IE, either. ToEE's 3D was not bad but I wish it had been less buggy in terms of the game-play. Personally, I cannot but doubt these things worth the invested time of both the players' and the designers'.

Feargus related jokes - oh, my memories.

To be honest, I expected at least tech demo at the opening of Kickstarter but they may be thinking a certain mystery may be good for spreading words, which is an understandable tactics.

Feargus is not the project leader, Sawyer is. It's an established fact that Feargus is just responsible for serving coffee in Obsidian.

Indeed, Sawyer sounded like that. I think the camera needs to make the tactical gameplay enjoyable and it needs to help convey the right atmosphere/vibe of the world. If the environments are built for the camera (as this one is), these distances/angles work well.

Oh, it's FUNCtioning now.

From Amazon ad on Kindle DX

Yeah, as I repeatedly comment on this topic, I'd rather have NPCs judge the action of the protagonist than the morality slider. The worst thing about the single minded morality slider is that it gets in players' "experiencing" different views given by NPCs from various backgrounds in the imaginary world. In fact, I don't understand why FONV stuck to Karma system, having read Sawyers' writings - even the latest one.

From Project Eternity Interview @ Gamebanshee

Wonder if this was the reason why he left Midway... A twist to typical male fantasy like Fall-from-Grace is O.K. by me, though.

I admit that's tempting. Van Buren was planned to have such a switch but I wonder they will do a stretch goal for that. Well, if only Sawyer is sure that they will be able to satisfy both crowds, maybe, but, personally, I'd rather have one solid system.

These geeks know how to lure other geeks.